KBA Report 33 out now

Drupa review, ecological printing and further news

A comprehensive round-up of events which captured the attention of the 391,000 visitors counted at drupa 2008 stands at the focus of the 33rd issue of KBA Report, the customer magazine of Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA). On 52 pages, the many innovations which KBA presented to sheetfed, commercial web and newspaper printers from all over the world have been summed up once more and explained in further detail in the context of their user benefits.

KBA Report no. 33 places this year's drupa back in the spotlight, alongside many other interesting topics

In his editorial, KBA president Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann addresses topics which were particularly prominent at drupa, namely the interactions between analogue and digital processes, new materials and optimised applications for individual and more original print products. One significant example which he names for the ever closer networking of print and online services is Web2Print. This form of print business is becoming increasingly popular and can be considered characteristic for the ongoing changes in the branch. At the same time, however, the marketing battles which were still being fought between offset and digital print at drupa 2000 have been replaced with a calmer professionalism. It seems that both sides have come to respect the specific strengths of the other process, while working purposefully to overcome their own weaknesses. Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann: “But without the often aggressive new competitor digital print, we would not have seen such rapid and significant advances in the productivity and cost-effectiveness of modern sheetfed offset presses for short-run print. Competition, after all, is also a motor of innovation.” This fact is illustrated perfectly by the makeready world record set up during drupa by the new KBA Rapida 106, which in an hour produced 15 different jobs of 530 sheets each.

Ecological printing is another subject to which various articles are devoted in the latest KBA Report. In his title commentary, KBA marketing director Klaus Schmidt points out that the increasingly important topic of sustained development calls for staying power rather than short-term actionism. Rainer Litty, who has managed print for WWF Germany since 2003, emphasises in an interview the relevance of energy efficiency for ecological print production. Technical articles on automated substrate logistics in sheetfed offset, details of new KBA service offers and practical user reports from around the world round off another very colourful customer magazine.